The Cat of Bubastes: A Tale of Ancient EgyptHenty, G. A. (George Alfred)
History
The Cat of Bubastes: A Tale of Ancient Egypt
Henty, G. A. (George Alfred)
Adventure and adventurers -- Fiction; Egypt -- History -- To 332 B.C. -- Fiction
“It is rather a long story, Jethro; but now that I have had a meal I
feel strong enough to talk all night, for I have had nearly
twenty-four hours’ sleep. First, I will tell Chebron that when I took
the pursuers off his track I had no idea of sacrificing myself, for I
made sure that I should be able to outrun them, and I should have done
so easily had it not been for fresh people constantly taking up the
pursuit and at last running me down.”
Amuba then related the whole story of his flight, his attack with
the peasants and his rescue, and then recited the whole of his
conversation with his rescuer and his proceedings after leaving his
house. “So you see,” he concluded, “that strangely enough it was the
teaching of your father, Chebron, and the tale that Ruth told us, and
that her grandfather before told you, of the God of their forefathers,
that saved my life. Had it not been that this prince of Israelitish
birth also believed in one God, it could hardly be that he would have
saved me from the vengeance of the people, for as he says he is in
disfavor with the king, and his conduct in allowing me to go free
merely on my own assertion of my innocence is likely to do him further
harm. This he would assuredly never have risked had it not been for
the tie between us of a common faith in one great God.”
“It is a strange story,” Jethro said when Amuba brought his narrative
to a conclusion, “and you have had a marvelous escape. Had it not been
for the arrival of this prince upon the spot at the very moment you
must have been killed. Had he not have been of a compassionate nature
he would never, in the first place, have interfered on your behalf;
and had it not been for your common faith, he would have held you
until the officials arrived to claim you. Then, too, you were
fortunate, indeed, in the kindness of your guide; for evidently had it
not been for your long rest, and the steps he took to reduce the heat
of your wounds, you must have fallen into the hands of the searchers
this morning. Above all, I consider it extraordinary that you should
at the critical moment have been rescued by perhaps the one man in
Egypt who would have had the will and the courage to save you.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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